Agriculture committee  We have an amazing extension network going on across our country relative to grassland management and a lot of it is producers talking to producers. Research is really important, but getting application and producers sharing knowledge are really important. Grazing mentorship prog

Agriculture committee  The biggest challenge when a disaster happens, from a government perspective, is trying to envision what type of disaster and where it's going to happen, so I appreciate the difficulty. One of the challenges is that producers often have to make decisions very quickly, whether tha

Agriculture committee  Definitely there are efforts to do that. The specific reference I made was relative to forages. A lot of the forage insurance does not account for the fact that if you have to use forage insurance and then purchase forage because it's come into effect, it has a cap on it. It does

Agriculture committee  Keep in mind, especially in that area, that the majority of cattle production occurs in non-irrigated regions, so we're depending on grasses and what's there. What's there and how we manage it is the biggest thing and the biggest question. I think what we are aware of is that th

Agriculture committee  For the study being referenced, we've measured that between 1981 and 2011, the beef industry has reduced its water footprint by 17%. For each kilogram of beef, we use 17% less water. Those gains were achieved through increased efficiency in animal health and reproduction, improve

Agriculture committee  I think the important part to emphasize for grain-fed beef production is that in terms of the current production system in Canada, 80% of the animal's lifetime is spent consuming forage. There's this perception that the grass part is a small part, but it's not. It's a very signif

Agriculture committee  I'll let Fawn elaborate on that one, because she's more aware of the environmental partnerships.

Agriculture committee  There's been data gathered for many years on carbon sequestration on grasslands. Researchers were gathering the data a long time ago. For a long time, though, I think we were focused on production, to be honest with you. What we understand very much now, though, is well-managed

Agriculture committee  Fawn, do you want to answer that?

Agriculture committee  Thank you for the invitation to speak to you today. My name is Andrea Brocklebank, and I'm the executive director of the Beef Cattle Research Council. I'm joined by Fawn Jackson, who is the environmental and sustainability manager for the Canadian Cattlemen's Association. My fam

Agriculture committee  I can answer that quickly. We've done a lot of research, most recently to put science behind our environmental footprint. That work has shown that over a 20-year period we've reduced our environmental footprint by 15%. That's innovation. It's improved animal health, improved fe

Agriculture committee  We know that one of the biggest things we have to do is continue to improve productivity. The population in the world is growing. Canada has a really strong land base and resource base. If we can be a leader in production, we have a strong global position in that. Other countries

Agriculture committee  That speaks to the point about incentives-based programming whereby you work with partners like Ducks Unlimited. Another major partner is World Wildlife Fund. They've come to the table with industry and are working together in trying to find solutions. Regulation doesn't always w